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| Q.What is Social Dreaming? |
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| Social Dreaming is a discipline for amplifying the social meaning and significance of dreams through sharing them with other people. This is done in a Social Dreaming Matrix by the deliberate and sustained method of free association and amplification.
Social Dreaming takes place, with any number of people, in a ‘matrix’. The matrix is a different ‘container’ for receiving dreams. It is different from a group or a dyad as in the therapeutic situation. Because it is a different container the ‘contained’ of the dream alters and is always reflecting the social context of the dreamer. The different contents of the dream ushers the dreamer into a larger domain of gaining knowledge and insight.
If the unconscious operates on different logic from the rational world and is the ground of dreaming, so the matrix mirrors this different logic in a way that is not so possible in a group.
The matrix makes the world of the infinite, of the ‘not-yet-known’, the ‘waiting-to-be-known’, the ‘yet-to-be discovered’, the ‘unthought known’, that much more accessible. The unknown is the source of all creative discoveries. Once something is thought of it enters the domain of the finite known. Social Dreaming offers the opportunities to think afresh, laterally, and creatively around the tensions, paradoxes, and possible contradictions and ambivalence of entering ‘not-knowing’ as a way to develop new knowledge.
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| Q.Why participate?
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| Social Dreaming is experienced as pleasurable and thrilling as participants learn to think laterally and divergently; to break the mould of goal-orientated thinking. A Social Dreaming Matrix is a subversive activity, for it disrupts the usual ways of thinking and knowledge.
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| Q.What kind of people go to a Social Dreaming event? |
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| What they have in common is that they are excited by new ideas and new experiences. They are classic innovators, like, educationalists, business leaders, organizational consults and all creative workers in industry.
Social Dreaming takes place, with any number of people, in a 'matrix'. The matrix is a different 'container' for receiving dreams. It is different from a group or a dyad as in the therapeutic situation. Because it is a different container the 'contained' of the dream alters and is always reflecting the social context of the dreamer. The different contents of the dream ushers the dreamer into a larger domain of gaining knowledge and insight.
If the unconscious operates on different logic from the rational world and is the ground of dreaming, so the matrix mirrors this different logic in a way that is not so possible in a group.
The matrix makes the world of the infinite, of the 'not-yet-known', the 'waiting-to-be-known', the 'yet-to-be discovered', the 'unthought known', that much more accessible. The unknown is the source of all creative discoveries. Once something is thought of it enters the domain of the finite known. Social Dreaming offers the opportunities to think afresh, laterally, and creatively around the tensions, paradoxes, and possible contradictions and ambivalence of entering 'not-knowing' as a way to develop new knowledge.
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| Q.Aren’t dreams private? |
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| Dreams come from through the individual but they are reflecting the social unconscious that we all share.
Since the focus of SD is on gaining knowledge of the environment, the individual’s private preoccupations are not considered. The focus is on the dreaming and not the dreamer,
Focusing on the personal of the individual’s dreams has been a privileged prejudice for most of last century. From time immemorial people have used their dreams to solve the problems of living in the environment.
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| Q.I’m worried about sharing my dream – should I be? |
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| No, because the dreams are treated as belonging to all the people participating. Dreams are never dissected from an individual point of view. Anyway the dreams in a Social Dreaming are different from those presented in any therapeutic situation. |
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| Q.How does it work? |
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| A number of people come together and share their dreams. People will begin to free associate to them; some will search for meaning. What follows is a disciplined discussion on the dimensions of the dream in terms of knowledge, Because Social Dreaming takes place in a Matrix, it mirrors the process of dreaming itself. The mind is freed from analytic domination. In a group the wish is to subscribe to a universe of meaning; in a matrix the participants tolerate the “multi-verse” of meaning that is the outcome of being in a matrix. The figure in the matrix is associative thinking, with group as the ground. Groups can be rational and logically orientated. Matrix relies on free thinking and on the conversation of the participants. |
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| Q.. Can anyone be a Social Dreamer or do you need expert knowledge? What do you need to be good at Social Dreaming? |
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| Some find it easier than others. For those who have the capacity for reverie, who are comfortable with not knowing, who have the courage to be in doubts and uncertainties, it is easy. Those who cannot let-go of their habitual modes of relating and thinking, may find it challenging. |
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| Q.Who are the organizers? |
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| The organizers are called hosts – never consultants. They will be experienced in Social Dreaming and it is their role to ensure that the free thinking takes place, and the task of the Matrix is pursued. |
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| Q.Can it be compared to anything else? |
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No. Social Dreaming is the re-discovery of the skills of the Australian aborigines, the Senoi, and the American Indians (Brody, 1981). [Maps and Dreams, London: Faber and Faber.] Many cultures have accessed their dreams to find a dimension of the mind that is common to all. Social Dreaming belongs to these kinds of traditions, and not the Western rationalist and therapeutic paradigm.
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| Q.. How long does it last? |
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| A matrix lasts an hour and a half. Some run for three days, as part of a programme, some take place once a month and can last for a number of years. |
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| Q.What do I gain by participating in Social Dreaming ? |
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Social Dreaming will expand your thinking and knowledge base for personal development as well as for professional development
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